On 13 January, the French National Assembly adopted on first reading a bill to define the new legal framework for extensions corresponding to the national territory and opening the registration of the .FR top level domain to businesses and individuals residing within the European Union.

In an unsurprising move the French government has selected none less than AFNIC to stay the .FR Registry for another seven years. While the news will grant stability to the .FR market, opportunities for change may have been missed as the opening of the extension to European citizens is only contemplated for 2012.

December 22, 2009Domaining, Domainnews, RegistriesComments Off on Exclusive – Dirk Krischenowski, dotBerlin: “We did not ask Minds & Machines for help !”

A Tale of Two (dot)Berlins?

Industry specialists who follow new gTLDs were quite surprised to hear about the UniteBerlin initiative which wants to enter "dotBerlin" as a new Top Level Domain in the next ICANN round. Not because dotBerlin is not a good idea, but rather because this project only appeared this December 21st while everyone had known and seen the same group of people representing the original dotBerlin for more than six years!

Various sources have confirmed to DomainNews that an unusual tandem formed by the .FR Registry (AFNIC) and a gathering of Registrars specialized in gTLDs (CORE) has been apointed by the Paris city council to become Registry operator for the future dotParis. Is it a good thing?